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Typhoon Haiyan: Strongest cyclone in decades slams Philippines

By Reuters

Thu., Nov. 7, 2013

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—One of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded slammed into the Philippines on Friday, setting off landslides, knocking out power in one entire province and cutting communications in the country’s central region of island provinces. Two people had died.

Telephone lines appeared down as it was difficult to get through to the landfall site 650 kilometres southeast of Manila, where Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the southern tip of Samar island before barrelling on to Leyte Island.

Residents of Legazpi city in Albay province, south of Manila, are evacuated on Thursday ahead of a super typhoon that was strengthening in the Pacific Ocean. (CHARISM Z. SAYAT / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

One of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded slammed into the Philippines early Friday. (Nelson Salting / AP)

A villager was electrocuted in southern Surigao del Sur province and another was hit by a tree felled by strong winds in central Cebu province, officials said.

Haiyan was packing maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 275 kilometres per hour as it made landfall over Guiuan town in Eastern Samar province, the national weather bureau said.

Other weather organizations placed Haiyan’s maximum winds at 315 kilometres per hour with gusts of up to 380 kilometres per hour.

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More than 125,000 people were evacuated from homes in coastal communities and areas prone to floods or landslides in 22 provinces before Haiyan hit, according to the national disaster relief agency.

Schools, businesses and government offices were closed in the affected areas, while air and sea travel was cancelled, leaving more than 2,000 passengers stranded, the agency said.

Telephone lines appeared down as it was difficult to get through to the landfall site, in a rural part of the country.

Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private firm Weather Underground, said, “There aren’t too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind,” in reference to the 315 km/h estimate.

Masters said the storm had been poised to be the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded at landfall. He warned of “catastrophic damage.”

Haiyan’s wind strength at landfall had been expected to beat out Hurricane Camille, which was 305 k/hr at landfall in the U.S. in 1969, Masters said.

Already authorities reported having trouble reaching colleagues in the landfall area, with forecaster Mario Palafox of the national weather bureau saying contact had been lost with staff in the landfall area.

Among those evacuated were thousands of residents of Bohol who had been camped in tents and other makeshift shelters after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastated many towns on the island province.

Masters said the Philippines might get a small break because the storm is so fast-moving that flooding from heavy rains — usually the cause of most deaths from typhoons in the Philippines — may not be as bad.

After hitting Guiuan on the southern tip of Samar island, the typhoon pummelled nearby Leyte island.

“I think this is the strongest so far since the 1960s,” Southern Leyte Gov. Roger Mercado said on ABS-CBN television. “This is really a wallop. All roads are impassable due to fallen trees.”

President Benigno Aquino III assured the public of war-like preparations, with three C-130 air force cargo planes and 32 military helicopters and planes on standby, along with 20 navy ships.

The typhoon — the 24th serious storm to hit the Philippines this year — is expected to barrel through the Philippines’ central region Friday and Saturday before blowing toward the South China Sea over the weekend, heading toward Vietnam.

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